Biologist Wins Templeton Prize

By CORNELIA DEAN

Published: March 26, 2010

Francisco J. Ayala, a biologist and former Roman Catholic priest whose books and speeches offer reassurance that there is no essential contradiction between religious faith and belief in science, particularly the theory of evolution, has won the 2010 Templeton Prize.

The John Templeton Foundation awards the annual prize, worth about $1.5 million, to ''a living person who has made exceptional contributions to affirming life's spiritual dimension.''

Dr. Ayala, an evolutionary biologist and a geneticist at the University of California, Irvine, lectures widely on science and religion, emphasizing that they are separate realms and that people come to grief when they attempt to ''entangle'' them -- as, for instance, when scientists assert there is no God or when advocates of creationist theories invoke supernatural intervention to explain evolutionary change.

Dr. Ayala, 76, whose recent research focuses on the evolution of micro-organisms, particularly those that cause malaria, is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and holds the National Medal of Science.

Among his other writings, his book ''Darwin's Gift'' (John Henry Press, 2007) describes the theory of evolution as helping to explain how evil could co-exist with a good and omnipotent God. His newest book, ''Am I a Monkey? Six Big Questions about Evolution,'' will be published this year by Johns Hopkins University Press.